Green was the color of the grass
Regulus Arcturus Black.
The younger son of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, the heir of said house, the child prodigy, the paragon of beauty and power, the Prince of all Slytherins. Or as he liked to call himself, the spare.
Though nobody said it aloud, that was his role, what he had been born as and would be until his untimely death.
And it was okay. Truly, it was. He could live with always being in his brother's shadow. He could live with having to simply nod at all of the bullshit his family, housemates, and acquaintances sputtered every day. He could live with having to hide his talents if only to prevent his parents from using his knowledge and abilities for their own gain. He could live with being seen as the brooding prince of Slytherin House, as long as the Slytherins respected him as such and listened to the few words he did say.
What he realized he could not live with, was being abandoned. Even as a young boy he clung to his older brother, refusing to let him go, in the hopes that his brother would stay with him forever.
And for a while, it seemed like he would. The two of them grew up very close, they had to, to survive in a house like Grimmauld Place. But the older they got, the further they drifted apart. Sirius started questioning the pureblood ways more and more and slowly but surely earned their parents' disapproval. Regulus never spoke up, but he quietly agreed with his older brother. If only because his thirst for knowledge led to him reading up on everything their parents told him and coming to the conclusion that they were simply wrong.
But Regulus was not like Sirius, no. He was too afraid to speak even a word showing that he agreed with his dear older brother, which led to said older brother thinking that Regulus agreed with their parents and distancing himself from him. Things got even worse when he started Hogwarts and met those friends of his, the marauders. As much as Regulus loved how happy his older brother sounded in the few letters he sent, he was also jealous because Sirius making new friends also meant that he would be more likely to leave him. And he didn't like that at all.
And then came the fateful day that Regulus joined his older brother at Hogwarts. Some might have looked forward to it, to finally being accepted at Hogwarts. But for Regulus, this meant only one thing. He would be sorted into Slytherin, and he would! Because even if the Sorting Hat decided he belonged in another house, Regulus would ask the hat to be put into Slytherin because he knew. If he was put anywhere else, his parents would punish Sirius for having put such ideas into his head. But he also knew that being put into Slytherin would lead to the bond between him and his brother breaking even more.
And things got exactly like he predicted they would. He had seen it in his dreams after all.
Things just went on like that for a few years. Regulus would longingly stare at his older brother but hide it from everybody else. Sirius would ignore his existence at all costs, instead spending more and more time with his friends. Regulus would become the unofficial prince of House Slytherin, to the point where his word was law. He was respected, admired, and adored to the point that if he asked, he was sure the purebloods would at least rethink their ways if not completely change them. He excelled at everything he did and by the end of the first year, he was considered a prodigy by not only other students in his year, but also his housemates, upperclassmen from other houses, and even by the teachers. He was infamous for mastering everything he touched, though nobody was sure if it was simply an innate talent or the work and time he put into it.
When Sirius ran away right after his 5th year ended, Regulus was not surprised. He had known since he was a small child that Sirius would run away at some point and he had long realized that there was almost nothing that could change what he saw in his dreams. He had come to terms with the tragedies of the future. Of being forced to join the Death Eaters, losing his brother for good, "finding out" or rather being confronted with a horcrux, dying a gruesome death to try and fail at destroying the Horcrux and protecting his brother and his friends. Of how James Potter would marry Lily Evans out of convenience and have a child with her to continue on the Potter name, how Peter Pettigrew would betray them to Lord Voldemort and cause James's and Lily's untimely deaths, his brother's imprisonment in Azkaban, and Remus Lupin to forever have to live knowing that one of his best friends had betrayed them, another friend had died because of the betrayal and the last of them would spend eternity in Azkaban.
Oh, how Regulus wished he was able to change things, but sadly that was not a part of his powers.
Or that's what he thought until one of his dreams turned out to be completely different than any other dream he had ever had.
Rather than starting right with an action-filled scene or at least a strange knowledge of what was going on in the scene he woke up in, he woke up in a sunlit meadow of flowers without any clue what was going on. For a moment he thought he had actually woken up in a meadow instead of dreaming because there was no sign that he was having another one of his visions. The ambiance was rather strange. He could hear music coming from somewhere and only his advanced knowledge in both muggle and wizard music allowed him to recognize it as a lyre. Strange, that was the first time one of his dreams was accompanied by music, and then it was a lyre of all things? Why not something more common, like a piano or a violin? The choice almost seemed deliberate.
Then he looked around and realized just how beautiful this meadow actually was. The meadow was filled with all kinds of yellow and orange flowers, most notably sunflowers and daffodils, though the highlight were undoubtedly the blue hyacinths and the bay laurels that he realized were right next to a little pond. In the pond, he spotted some beautiful swans that looked at him and bowed their head like they were greeting him. There were also deers, snakes, and some foxes, though they all looked rather peaceful with each other. In the sky, he recognized some of the birds like hawks, ravens, and crows. All of the animals turned to him and greeted him, just like the swans did - like they were expecting him.
He was just about to come a little closer when he was blinded by the sun out of nowhere. He had to close his eyes or he feared he would actually end up going blind. When he felt the sun leaving again, he re-opened his eyes and could barely stop himself from jumping back in surprise when his eyes landed on a rather handsome youth right in front of him. Regulus wasn't sure where to look first, the boy's? Young man's? tanned but flawless skin? His startlingly blue eyes with golden specks? The beautiful freckles covering his cheeks? The golden blonde locks that made him look like an angel? Or even his marvelous body that looked like a sculpture of a Greek God? If Regulus hadn't already known he preferred boys over girls, he would surely be convinced of it now.
The boy in front of him laughed quietly as if he had heard Regulus's thoughts and Regulus realized that he probably had, this was just one of his dreams after all so who's to say this person wasn't like him and could hear every word he thought.
He was just about to speak and ask who the boy was, what he was doing in Regulus's dream, and what was going on when he was shushed by the ethereal young man. He then leaned slightly forward and before Regulus could protest he kissed him right on the lips. Regulus was so shocked he didn't even react until he moaned slightly when he realized that the one kissing him tasted of vanilla. Just when he closed his eyes and was about to return the kiss, the kiss stopped and he whined with a pout on his face. He opened his mouth and wanted to complain some more, but he quickly realized that the person who had kissed him was simply gone. He looked around again but it was as if he had never been there. Before he could really register that the whole meadow, including the flowers, the pond, and the animals he had stood in just a second before were disappearing right before his eyes, he woke up with a start.
And suddenly he just knew.
He knew what he had to do. He knew he could and had to change things. If not for his brother and his friends, then for himself.
Because he had suddenly seen what his future could look like if he only made some different choices. And he was scared to admit that he liked what he saw.
He saw a reunion with his brother. He saw himself finally burying the one-sided bad blood between him and his brother's friends. He saw himself finding friends and a family, just like Sirius had. But most of all, he saw happiness. His happiness. He didn't know what it looked like, but there was a strange knowledge that he would be happy.
For the very first time since he started having prophetic dreams as a child, he knew that he had choices and he knew which ones to make first.
And he decided to repay the gods, especially his new Lord, by not ignoring the choices presented to him, but by honoring them.